


Birthday Interrupted

by PrairieDawn



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Explosions, M/M, Multi, Murder Mystery, New Vulcan, katras
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:02:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28905309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrairieDawn/pseuds/PrairieDawn
Summary: Hikaru Sulu takes Pavel Chekov hang gliding on Auberlaine for his 21st birthday. They find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and get caught up in a murder.
Relationships: Pavel Chekov/Ben Sulu/Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov/Hikaru Sulu
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Star Trek New Year Exchange 2021





	Birthday Interrupted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kribban](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kribban/gifts).



> Prompt: Chekov/Sulu, Established Relationship, Murder Mystery, Explosions (I went a bit weak in the explosions, but there is one if you look)
> 
> (Appeared as part of an anonymous gift exchange on the 22nd. Redating because it's off anon now.)

“This is amazing!” Pavel shouted, throwing his hands out and spinning in a slow circle to take in the wide blue sky, the fragrant stands of indigo evergreens (everblues?), and the light, cool wind brushing the hair back from their faces on its way over the limestone cliffs and down to the valley below.

Hikaru chuckled. “Twenty-one is a major birthday and I happen to know you’re already well acquainted with ‘wodka.’ Come help me get the gear out of the flitter.”

“Are you sure zis is safe?” 

“Of course not. Who do you think I am, your grandma?”

Pavel finished pulling the neatly wrapped bundle of bright red polymer out of the flitter and set it on the ground, then strolled over to Hikaru, draping his arms over his shoulders. “I for one am wery glad you are not my babushka, Karu,” he said, then leaned in for a long, deliciously wicked kiss that had Hikaru considering delaying their base jump for a quickie in the flitter. If only the wind weren’t exactly perfect right now, and fickle enough they didn’t dare wait.

Hikaru pulled away. “Pasha.”

“I’m not such an old man as you yet, Karu. I have needs!”

“Well, I have a need to fly over this gorgeous forest without a shuttle or a flitter between me and the open air.”

“And after?” Fortunately, the hang gliders themselves were largely self-assembling. They needed only to get them out of their rip-stop nylon bags, stake them down to keep them from blowing right off the cliff, and stand back while the assembly program caused them to unfold in a precise sequence, expanding like polymer pterosaurs with wide red and yellow stripes. 

“A picnic lunch, a hike out to a cabin, and then whatever you like. We’re not due back until tomorrow afternoon.”

Pavel grinned. “I will take many pictures.”

“You are insufferable.”

Pavel pulled his own hang glider out of its bag and began to lay it out exactly as Hikaru had. “For Ben! The pictures are for Ben! So he will not forget what he is missing while he waits to see us in how many months?”

“Three.” 

“Three months!” Pavel lamented. The Russian accent was built for a good lament. “Demora will grow so much in three months!”

Hikaru moved to double-check the gliders to make sure they were in good working condition. “Then it’s good we have each other and Ben and Demora have Tela to keep them company until we return.”

“Do you think Tela will like us?”

“You mean do I think Tela will like you? I’m sure she will like you fine. Ben wouldn’t add someone he didn’t think we could get along with.”

“I hope we more than get along,” Pavel said with a lascivious grin.

“Insatiable!”

“You’re first, Pasha,” he said. “I want to watch you take off, make sure you don’t get into any trouble.”

“Mother hen,” Pasha protested, but he allowed Hikaru to help him put on the harness. He checked his own straps, then waited for Hikaru to put on his own harness and checked the straps for him as well.

Hikaru nodded approval. “Wait until you see me standing by the flitter, then hit the control to fully extend the wings and run off the edge of the cliff. The blue toggle controls the portable antigrav.”

“I will not need it.”

“But if you do.”

“If I do I know where it is, Karu.”

“Good, I don’t want to take you home to Ben and Tela in a bag.”

Pavel snorted. “You are disgusting.”

“I’ll show you disgusting, Pasha.”

“Promises, promises.” He checked Hikaru’s position, extended the glider’s wings, and launched himself off the cliff with a wild whoop of delight. 

Hikaru watched Pavel dip and swoop until he caught a thermal and spiraled upward, then he extended his own wings, ran for the cliff, and leaped. The wind caught him up playfully. He shifted his weight to catch the column of rising air and followed Pavel up into the bright blue sky.

He would stay up here all day if his body would let him. Even two young men, and at twenty-six, Hikaru was by no means old whatever Pavel thought about it, couldn’t use muscles in unaccustomed ways for too long without suffering the consequences. After an hour in the air, Hikaru signaled to Pavel and they began a slow, spiraling descent, aiming for the clear space at the base of the cliff. They’d drifted a little north of where they had taken off, to an area where the cliffs were lower and led stepwise to flatter terrain dotted with forests and meadows. Hikaru took a moment to reprogram the autopilot on the flitter to meet them on the nearest road to their new landing site.

“You land first, I have not done this since Academy,” Pavel said over the comlink. “I will watch.”

“Wise choice, Pasha. See that you do.”

“It is an excellent view, Karu.”

Hikaru snorted a laugh into his comlink before coming into the final descent, unhooking his legs and bringing them forward to touch, touch, and land in the open field a couple of hundred meters from the cliff. He started to stow the glider into its pack while keeping an eye out for Pavel behind him.

He swept up a little high on the last pass, canted a bit to the side so the wing dragged across the ground, but recovered to make a landing that was serviceable, if a bit ugly. Hikaru left his bundled glider on the ground and ran to make sure Pavel hadn’t hurt himself. “Pasha! You okay?”

“Da, Karu!” Pavel shouted. “I may have bent one of the struts, though.” He was already stepping out of the harness. “It will not fold.”

“Let me help.” The two of them lay out the glider on the ground and wrapped it up as small as could be managed, but the bent strut wouldn’t collapse and Hikaru didn’t want to force it. Recreation credits might not be money, as such, but he still didn’t want to draw down his allotment more than he had to by damaging the glider. It lay on the ground in front of them, one side collapsed neatly into the pack, the other side sticking up in a triangle higher than either of them was tall. 

“We’ll take it back to the check-in station here and the caretakers can pick it up,” he said.

Pavel nodded and picked up the awkward thing in both arms. Hikaru ran back to finish stowing his own, slung the compact pack on his back, and jogged back to help Pavel juggle his burden. 

They passed a clump of violet conifers into sight of a shelf of stone just in time to see something human size and shape tumble off, bounce a couple of times, and hit the ground. “How high is that cliff?” Hikaru asked, urgently, as they both threw down their burdens and sprinted toward the fallen body.

“Twenty meters, give or take,” Pavel answered, already running. Hikaru ran first aid protocols in his head. It was just possible whoever it was survived the initial fall, depending on how they had landed, and if so, they would need immediate transport to a high-level trauma facility.

Pavel, taller and not carrying a glider on his back, reached the body first. “Is very bad, but is breathing!” Pavel shouted back at him. “Call Emergency.”

Hikaru ran the last few steps, stopping a couple of meters from Pavel and the critically injured, jewel green spattered victim. He flipped open his comlink to static, tapped in the code for local emergency services, and got nothing. “I’m going to head out a bit. I think the rock may be interfering with the signal.”

It shouldn’t be. Hikaru jogged a few meters further from the base of the cliff, to no avail. If they couldn’t get EMS here within minutes, he held out little hope the accident victim would survive. He kept trying for a few moments longer, then ran back to check on Pavel.

It looked like Pavel had his ear to the man’s chest. He hurried to their side to find Pavel pinned down against the gravely injured Vulcan’s body, held down by a badly broken hand. Pavel’s eyes were open, but blank, and his breath came in short, wheezing gasps.

“Pasha!” He knelt to pull the younger man away from his attacker.

As soon as he touched Pavel’s shoulder, he blinked and focused for a moment on Hikaru. “No, Karu. Wait.” He looked away, his eyes unfocusing again.

Hikaru tried EMS again. And again. He could hear a flitter approaching, so started for the parking port. A flitter landed, not theirs. He stopped, curious. The doors opened. “Where did he hit? We need to get the body out of here,” the driver said on emerging from the vehicle.

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck! They would be at the base of the cliff in less than a minute. Hikaru took off at a run, barely registered Pavel sitting back on his haunches beside the body, his clothes stained with the Vulcan’s blood, before catching him up by the arm and half leading, half dragging him into the nearest stand of trees.

“Get down!” he said. Pavel didn’t respond.

Hikaru tugged him to the ground and he crumpled like a doll. He could only hope that whatever that Vulcan did to him, Pavel would at least stay quiet until they could get out of there. Their flitter! He pulled his comlink back out, carefully set it to silent, and pulled up a map, looking or an alternate destination for their own transportation, one they had a chance of reaching before these guys found them. There was a port half a klick away in the opposite direction that they could reach under the cover of the forest; he sent the change in destination, but couldn’t be sure the flitter received it.

The occupants of the other flitter, three of them, strode across the clearing at the base of the cliff, scanning the space until they caught sight of their victim. They then walked quickly toward him. One of them kicked the body viciously in the head, twice. Beside him, Pavel flinched violently. They conversed too quietly for Hikaru to make out their words for about a minute, then one of them unfolded a tarp and lay it out, while two others rolled the body onto it and wrapped it up tight. They lifted it between the three of them and carried it back to their flitter. One of them pointed out Pavel’s damaged glider lying in the middle of the clearing and approached it, then called one of his buddies over to do the same. Hikaru saw them take a scan of the rental number on the wing.

He wished he’d brought a phaser. They were sitting ducks, and if these guys had any tracking ability the two of them weren’t going to get out of this. There was nothing he could do about that. But he needed to figure out the next steps, just in case they were luckier than they had any right to be. He hoped Pavel would get over the shock of whatever had happened to him in time to move quickly when they needed to.

The two murderers turned away from the glider and walked back toward their flitter, moving quickly out of earshot. Hikaru’s comlink pinged softly. Their own flitter had arrived. Hikaru made himself wait concealed in the undergrowth until the murderers took off and disappeared behind the trees before turning back to Pavel. “We gotta go. Can you move?”

Pavel bobbed his head, then winced and pressed the heel of his hand to his temple. He clambered to his feet a little unsteadily and held on to Hikaru’s shoulder for balance. Hikaru slid an arm around his back and pulled him close to support him, then hurried through the new growth woods, thick with shrubs and saplings, toward where their flitter ought to be. As they walked, Pavel’s steps grew more sure, though he still didn’t speak.

They needed to get a message to local law enforcement, then get to the Starfleet HQ nearby to hole up until they could hop the next transport to Starbase Seven. “This isn’t the birthday I’d have planned for you, Pavel.” Pavel didn’t answer, but he squeezed in a little tighter and walked a little faster.

Hikaru considered it a minor miracle they hadn’t been followed. Their rental flitter sat on its pad right where he’d sent it, and he could see no one anywhere around. With his arm still wrapped around Pavel, he ran for the flitter, sent the code to unlock it, and stuffed Pavel into the passenger seat. “Put your harness on,” he prompted. No response. What the hell had happened to him? He ran around to the pilot’s side and climbed in. “Pasha. Put your harness on,” he repeated, breathing a sigh of relief when, slowly, Pavel worked his arms into the five-point harness and locked it into place. Hikaru put on his own harness and engaged the autopilot, then took Pavel’s hands in his. “What happened?”

Pavel blinked. “Pushed him. They pushed him.”

The flitter rose into the air and turned in the direction of the local Starfleet outpost. “I kind of figured. What did the Vulcan, the murder victim, do to you?”

“Can’t.”

Hell of a time for him to go nonverbal, but he ought to have expected as much if his suspicions were correct. “Write it down,” he reminded. 

Pavel fumbled for his datapad, then looked at it as though he couldn’t remember what it was. “Take your time. If you can’t get the words out yourself, I’m sure we can find someone who can help you.” He hoped they could find someone.

The flitter made a sharp turn, banking almost on its side as it came upon the row of steep cliffs they’d taken off from earlier that afternoon. It was flying directly toward the cliff face. “Autopilot off!” Hikaru said, punching the manual override button at the same moment and pulling up hard on the stick. The flitter, fortunately, responded to his commands, carrying them up and over the cliff face.

Pavel doubled over to retrieve his datapad from where it had slid to the floor. “Controlled flight into terrain,” he said, flatly.

“Damn near. You okay?” Hikaru turned the flitter back toward the city and the Starfleet outpost there. 

“No. I am not. Not okay.”

“Hang in there, Pasha.” The flitter’s electronics flickered, then the stick jerked itself out of his hands, this time pivoting the nose of their craft sharply downward. “Manual override!” Hikaru shouted again, slamming the button and pulling back hard on the stick. “Pasha, I need you to cut off the flitter’s access to outside signals.”

No answer.

“Ensign Chekov, block all external signals to the flitter.”

The order caught his attention. “Yes, sir.” Pavel tapped his datapad and went to work, while Hikaru concentrated on keeping them in the air. Their remote hijacker would take over the controls and direct them to slam into the nearest solid surface, Hikaru would take control back and try to get them as high in the air as he could, then the hijacker would take control again.

Pretty soon the hijacker was going to figure out how to lock him out of the controls entirely. “Next one,” Pavel said quietly. The electronics flickered again, then the power shut off entirely and the flitter dropped like a stone.

Hikaru’s hands were moving to reboot the system before his brain caught up with the intention. The electronics came back up with a musical wheeze and he grabbed the throttle to turn them back to the outpost.

Where they would likely be waiting for him. “Ensign Chekov, how are we for power?”

“Near full power.”

“Good. Find me another Starfleet posting, a Federation embassy, in range but not in Redstone City.”

“Aye.”

Hikaru flew away from the city instead of toward it, hoping to confound the saboteur. 

Pavel reported, “Federation botanical sciences lab in West Fork, three hundred fifteen klicks bearing 201.2.”

“It will have to do,” he said, changing their heading.

Pavel managed a faint smile. “Just don’t get distracted by the pretty flowers.”

“I promise,” he replied, smiling at both the teasing and the fact that it meant that Pavel was coming back to him.

*

It took thirty minutes to reach West Fork, by which time Pavel was lolling in his seat, snoring. Hikaru used his Starfleet access code to send a distress call to the botany lab, which was answered by a very confused sounding woman. “You got a plant related emergency there, Lieutenant Sulu?”

“It will be easier to discuss in person. Just clear the landing pad for me.”

“All right, then,” she said and signed off.

Her demeanor was distressingly casual under the circumstances, but when he went into his final turn and visualized the landing pad it was clear and a grouping of blue-uniformed Starfleet personnel, four of them, were standing just to the side, ready to help.

He put down, hopped out of the flitter, and jogged around to the passenger side to help Pavel, who was already sliding out of his seat. The botany lab personnel started toward them at a run, the medic leading the group. When the slight, short woman reached them, she ran her scanner over Pavel while he protested, “Is not my blood!”

“Yes, I can see that. Wrong color.” She peered into the back of the flitter. “Whose blood is it? Where are they?”

Pavel studied his shoes for a few seconds, then looked to Hikaru as if expecting reassurance. Permission? “He is here.”

Oh hell no. “What do you mean, here?” Hikaru said.

Pavel straightened up and firmed his expression into the face he made when he made report. “Lieutenant Sulu. The murder victim transferred his consciousness to me as he died. His name was—is—Telik.”

“Oh goody, Vulcan mysticism that won’t be in the medical references,” the medic groused. “Sorry. That was unkind.”

Hikaru pressed forward. “We need to get inside, make a report, and get a Vulcan healer here to figure out what to do about Pavel. Someone tried to remotely pilot our flitter into the ground and I’d bet it was the same people who murdered this Telik.”

*

Pavel sat on the single biobed in the botany lab’s small infirmary and tried not to swing his legs. Lieutenant Campbell, a nurse practitioner probably more accustomed to managing allergic rashes and the occasional dusting of sex pollen, frowned at the scan on her screen. “I can’t corroborate your story. Can’t disprove it either. I just don’t know enough about this branch of medicine.”

“Telik is here. I cannot always understand him, but he is here.” The Vulcan had poured into his mind, a waterfall of memory and intention, Pavel helpless to stop the process once it had begun. It had hurt, and not just him. Telik felt, right now, even more confused and exhausted than Pavel. 

The nurse nodded. “Okay. Do you think he can understand me?”

Pavel closed his eyes so he could see the indistinct gray space in his mind where Telik seemed to be. The ghost had settled into a sort of closed posture, protecting itself. He touched it lightly. It’s posture softened. He opened his eyes. “Now? I do not think so. We need to sleep, I think.”

“Not yet.”

“Why?”

“We don’t know what will happen when you do. Whatever Telik gave you might fade when you fall asleep. Or—all I can say about your neuroscan is it doesn’t look normal. You could go to sleep and we might not be able to wake you.”

“Could it not be worse to make me stay awake?” His voice had a whine to it, he noticed with embarrassment.

She set the scanner down. “Tell you what. I know you’ll have had basic training in meditation at the Academy. I want you to sit here on the biobed and get yourself settled, then see if you can at least access Telik’s memory of what happened. Do that and I’ll let you go to sleep.”

Pavel thought it was pretty likely that if he closed his eyes and focused on his breath he would topple right off the bed into Nurse Campbell’s arms. “Where is Hikaru? I mean, where is Lieutenant Sulu?”

“Writing down what he remembers of what happened to the two of you. Couple security officers will be here to debrief you in an hour, along with the magistrate from Redstone.” She crossed her arms appraisingly. “If you can manage to stay awake I’ll make sure he gets in to see you.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said, firmly. That should be incentive enough. He slid down off the biobed to stand propped against it, legs crossed, arms crossed in front of him, eyes open and looking at the watermarked, scratched tile on the floor. It took only a few breaths to quiet himself. He acknowledged the melancholy presence in the back of his mind and felt it, felt him still as well. His eyes drifted shut, and in the space of another few breaths he ended up crumpling in spite of himself into the waiting arms of Lieutenant Campbell.

*

Hikaru finished typing out his report at a picnic table in the diffuse sunlight and cool greenery of the arboretum attached to the botany lab. The commander of the little research facility entered but waited patiently a few meters away until Hikaru noticed him. “Starfleet security is here,” she said.

“How’s Pavel, I mean Ensign Chekov?”

“Sleeping. Security wants to take your statements separately. You may be expected to remain on planet during the investigation, so unless you want to be stuck here in administrative limbo indefinitely, I’d suggest you contact your immediate superiors for orders before local law enforcement gets involved.”

“Understood.” 

Hikaru pulled out his comlink and accessed the local relay. The Enterprise should be close enough for real-time communication, so he put in an urgent request to Commander Spock and waited, expecting to leave a message and spending the time it took to connect the relays between Auberlaine and the Enterprise rehearsing what he would say. After a little over a minute, he heard, “Commander Spock here. I was not expecting to hear from you until tomorrow.”

Spock expected concise, complete reports without emotional embellishment. “Ensign Chekov and I witnessed the murder of a Vulcan civilian. We are to be questioned by Starfleet security and the local authorities. Ensign Chekov has been distressed and acting strangely since the incident.”

“In what way has the Ensign been acting strangely?”

Hikaru didn’t want to ruin the kid’s reputation with his mentor so soon, but he was expected to lead with observable facts. “He claims the victim is still with him. In his mind.” The silence stretched out for long enough Hikaru checked to be sure the connection was patent.

“Was the victim alive when you found them?”

“Yes, sir. I walked away from them briefly to obtain a signal to call for assistance, while Chekov attempted first aid. The victim grabbed him and held him to his chest for between two and five minutes, after which Chekov became disoriented.”

“I see. Ensign Chekov must be taken to New Vulcan as soon as possible in order to return the victim’s katra to their people. I will make arrangements.”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean, sir.”

“This is a sensitive matter, not to be discussed over an open channel.” There was another pause, and when the Commander came back on the line his tone had softened. “I will cut orders for both of you. It will be beneficial for Ensign Chekov to have the support of a partner at this time.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“One does not thank logic. Continue to update me on the situation as it evolves. I will notify the Captain. Spock out.” The connection broke with a faint click.

“If you’ll come with me,” the lab commander said. Hikaru startled. He’d forgotten she was standing there.

“Right, of course,” he said, tucking his datapad under his arm and moving to follow her. The Security officers were standing stiffly just outside the door to the arboretum. They started questioning him while they walked. Where exactly had he been? What had he seen? Had he observed anyone around the flitter before they’d flown it? How had Pavel interrupted the remote pilot? He had to refer them to Chekov for that one, he’d been far too busy keeping them from crashing to pay attention to the details of the navigator’s work.

They reached the tiny, single bed infirmary. Pavel was curled on his side with the blanket bunched up under his chin. “Pasha. Pasha, wake up,” Hikaru told him, shaking his shoulder.

Pavel mumbled something grumpy and threw his arm up over his face.

“Pasha, security is here, they need to talk to you about Telik.”

He let out a groaning sigh and pressed his palms to his face to rub at his eyes, then slowly pushed himself upright. “Is too bright in here,” he mumbled.

“Lights forty percent,” Campbell said. “Ask your questions, but try to remember he’s had quite a shock.”

“Ma’am,” the taller security officer acknowledged, then turned to Pavel. “Ensign Chekov, can you describe what you saw?”

“Artifacts in a locker. Should not have had them.”

“Ensign, we need to know what happened when—”

The second officer cut him off. “What did you see in the locker, Mr. Telik?”

Pavel curled forward and gripped his knees hard enough to wrinkle the fabric of his pants. “Is still me. Telik saw them. Books. Scrolls. Very old. He told the men they should not have them. They belong to Vulcan people. They surprise him, four of them. They put him in a flitter, flew him out to the cliffs. Then push him.”

“Could you identify these men if you saw them again?”

“Perhaps.”

The security officer turned his datapad to face Pavel. “These two look familiar?”

Pavel blinked and flinched back. “They are dead! You show me dead men!”

“Ensign, do you recognize them?”

He stared, wrinkling his face up as though he could concentrate his attention like a laser. After several seconds, he blew out a breath and shook his head. “I cannot be sure. The memory is not mine.”

“Keep trying. Your ride will be here in twelve hours. Until then, you’re to sit tight right here.”

“Are there spare quarters for us?” Hikaru asked.

“You think you can keep an eye on Ensign Chekov? I don’t want him alone,” Campbell said.

“I plan to keep both eyes on him at all times,” Hikaru answered, waggling his eyebrows where only Pavel could see. Pavel shrunk into himself, but didn’t say anything. “Let me help you up.” Hikaru threaded an arm around him and helped him hop off the biobed. “It’s his birthday, you know. He’s twenty-one.”

“And no alcohol!” Campbell shouted at their backs.

*

Pavel let Karu walk him to the guest quarters, a tiny room, not even three meters square, with bunk beds. Bunk beds! Not that they would be doing anything fun in a bed while they waited for the courier to collect them. Not with Telik looking over Pavel’s shoulder.

“We’ll be back in a bit with something for you two to eat,” Campbell told them before leaving them to their own devices in the spare little room. 

Pavel sat down heavily on the bottom bunk. Karu sat beside him, touching from shoulders to ankles. Pavel tilted his head to rest on Karu’s shoulder. “Some birthday, huh,” Karu said.

“I should not feel bad about that. Someone has been murdered in front of us. He had a much worse day than we had.” 

“How are you doing?”

Pavel opened his mouth on a lie, but closed it. “It is my birthday, there is a dead man in my head, and someone tried to kill us both. I am not so good, Karu.”

“Did you—did he force you?”

Pavel shook his head, forgetting for a moment his splitting headache. “Ow.” He let himself slide down so his aching head lay in Karu’s lap. That would be an interesting position, if he could just get turned around. He remembered abruptly that they were not really alone and tried to tamp down that thought. “He could not speak, but I heard him say ‘Please.’ Vulcans never say please. He sounded so afraid.” Karu was stroking through his hair, twirling the curls around his fingers. “So I said yes, whatever you need. Let me help.”

“You’re a good person, Pavel.”

“You would have done the same.” He closed his eyes again, for just a minute, and dozed off again to dream someone else’s life.

*

“Pasha, are you still asleep?”

Karu had kept the lights low to soothe Pavel’s aching head, made worse by the fact that Campbell wouldn’t give him anything for it. “I haven’t been for a while.” He turned away from the wall to see the two security officers wheeling something into their room on a cart. “We heard it was your birthday, and so we wanted to put something together to make up for the two of you being stuck here. They flipped the cover off the cart to reveal a fancy meal of vegetarian fajitas still sizzling in the skillet and served with guacamole and fresh pico de gallo.

“Wasn’t sure you’d be able to handle meat under the circumstances, so I thought this would be the next best thing.”

“Thanks, Karu. And I am sorry we can’t, you know. It would be too strange.”

“I’ll make it up to you later. Is he, you know, talking to you?”

“Not in words. Images. Feelings. He had a wife. A baby. I dream about the baby.”

Karu reached across the tiny table to take his hand. Pavel made himself smile. Karu stroked his thumb across Pavel’s knuckles, his own smile as sad a shadow as Pavel’s must be. “You should eat something.”

“I am sorry. I am not a very fun boyfriend.”

“Pasha.” Karu leaned forward. “I don’t want a fun boyfriend to keep me entertained while I’m on long space missions. I love you. As much as I love Ben, as uniquely as I love Ben—and I look forward to the day that you and me and Ben and Tela can spend some real time together as our own kind of family.”

“Without clothes on,” Pavel joked.

“Preferably.”

“I’m so sleepy I can hardly eat.”

“Then I’ll have to feed you.”

“I don’t want to ask for another change of clothes, Karu.”

Karu speared a mushroom and a pepper, dabbed them into the guacamole, then aimed them at Pavel’s mouth. “Then you had better open wide.”

The last time Karu had said that was in a very different context, and the memory made his face flush and a giggle force its way out of his throat. Karu stuffed fajita filling into his mouth and it was fantastic, amazing. They must have gotten delivery from a really good restaurant. Pavelpeeked under another silver dome and there was a little chocolate cake, just big enough to share with Karu.

It wasn’t quite the romantic dinner they’d hoped for, but it was enough.

*

The Vulcan fast courier was expected to arrive at 0400 local time. Pavel intended to meet it looking like a Starfleet officer rather than a patient, and Telik, who seemed to have benefited from most of a night’s sleep as well, agreed with him. He got himself shaved, covered up the dark circles under his eyes, and scrunched a little product into his curls just as Karu knocked on the door and said, groggily, “Coffee and danishes out here when you’re ready.”

“Bathroom is yours,” Pavel said, squeezing past Karu to take a seat on the bed again. The coffee was acceptable if enough cream was poured in it, and the raspberry and cream cheese danishes were good enough he ate three of them. He left the other two on the plate because he was a considerate boyfriend. 

The door chimed. “Come in,” he said.

The door opened, revealing a short, stocky Vulcan in off white robes with subtle gold embroidery at the collar and cuffs. He looked to be about Pavel’s age, which meant he was probably quite a bit older. “I am Healer Varen. I would assess your condition and that of the katra you carry, if I may?”

Nervousness squeezed Pavel’s chest. He blew out a breath, knowing he wasn’t being at all subtle. _The healer will not cause us pain,_ Telik chided gently in his head.

“I know, I know,” he told Telik. He turned back to Varen. “All right.”

To his surprise, the first thing the healer did was pull out a medscanner and wave it over him while muttering in a very McCoyish fashion. After perusing his datapad with a faintly frowny expression, he opened a small case and took out a couple of ampules of medication to load into a hypospray, then pressed it to Pavel’s throat. “This will help with the headache and vertigo. I would assess the condition of the katra you carry. Do you have any prior experience with melds?”

“Only once,” Pavel admitted. “My commanding officer and I were taken prisoner. It was necessary to share information while our captors were watching.”

“Understood. Be seated.”

Pavel sat. The meld wasn’t nearly as scary as he’d expected it to be. The healer called up their shared memory of the attack first, separating the critical information from Telik’s trauma and distress and placing it so that they could retrieve it easily, then moved on to examining Telik’s katra more thoroughly, leaving Pavel drifting in muffling softness as though he were wrapped in down comforters. 

In a little while Varen withdrew and sat back in his chair. “The transfer is solid and well settled, if somewhat rushed.”

Karu chose that moment to come out of the bathroom, dressed but still toweling off his hair. He looked from Pavel to Varen and moved protectively toward Pavel. “Everything all right here?”

“I am fine, Karu,” Pavel said. “But I must make a report to Starfleet security before we go.” They followed Varen out of their quarters, where the lab commander waited along with another member of the Vulcan Expeditionary Service, a Commander if he remembered the decorations correctly.

Pavel sought out the security officer who had questioned him the night before. “Sir. The murder victim saw stolen artifacts stored in a locker that belonged to the Vulcan people. He was kidnapped just after.”

“We’ll be following up on that as well,” the officer said, then turned to the Vulcan commander. “Commander T’Rokh, these two are on detached duty as long as needed. You can take them up.”

The transporter caught them up and fizzled them away.

*

The fast courier was a pretty ship inside and out, sleek and minimalist, with a two being cockpit in the fore of the ship, a conference room and six tiny cabins aft for moving people when time was of the essence. As soon as they materialized, Varen took Pavel aft, leaving Hikaru with the Vulcan commander and her pilot. “Pakal,” the commander ordered immediately, “set a course for New Vulcan, best speed.” The engines hummed to life. She turned back to Hikaru. “I was given to understand you also saw the criminals who committed this murder and may be responsible for the theft of cultural artifacts.”

Hikaru nodded. “I saw two of them, but they were between seven and eight meters away. If you have voice recordings, that might help.”

“Understood. Images and sound files have been loaded onto the copilot’s console. Examine them to determine if any match.”

Hikaru sat down to look through the images. The first three rang no bells, but the fourth he had to pause and look at closer, and when he played the sound file with the image a chill went through his entire body. “That’s the one,” he said aloud.

Commander T’Rokh looked over his shoulder. “This man is wanted for piracy, theft of Vulcan cultural artifacts for ransom, and at least three other murders. Pakal, Mr. Sulu had identified the human using the alias Harry Mudd.”

The ship dropped into warp. Hikaru noticed a faint flicker at the edge of the screen. “Did you see a flicker when the warp drive engaged?” he asked Pakal.

“Nothing that could not be explained by normal variations in subspace dynamics,” Pakal said.

“High alert,” T’Rokh said quietly. A green bar he hadn’t noticed before lit, forming a border between the wall and ceiling. “Raise shields.”

“Shields will reduce maximum safe speed by four point four percent, Commander.”

“Shields up,” Pakal said, and the faint sizzling whine of the shield generator added to the background hum. Hikaru got the distinct impression he had witnessed the Vulcan equivalent of a heated argument.

For another thirty seconds, they screamed away from the Auberlaine system, the engines singing beneath Hikaru’s feet, until there was a sudden thump and shudder. The warp bubble collapsed, throwing them out into normal space.

Pavel rushed forward to stand behind Hikaru’s station. “What is it?”

“The port nacelle is damaged. There appears to have been an explosion of some kind,” Pakal noted. 

“Send a distress signal on VES and Starfleet channels.”

“Aye, Commander,” Pakal responded.

“I will go examine the damage,” Pavel said.

You will wait here. I will examine the nacelle,” T’Rokh corrected, but she was interrupted by another detonation and a deep shudder that went through the ship.

“That was a photon torpedo,” Hikaru said. There was no ship on the screen. “Our attacker may be cloaked.”

“Pakal, locate the source and return fire!”

The ship’s firepower was limited, but it expended one of its pair of photon torpedoes against the curved bubble of another craft’s shields, lighting it up for a fraction of a second.

They were likely outgunned, Hikaru thought. “Pavel, Sneaky Fucker.” He stood to offer his seat at the controls to the commander. “I have a plan.”

T’Rokh deliberated for less than a second. “Go.”

Pavel dragged him aft to stand in front of the healer’s screen. “Varen, I need full access.” Varen tapped in the code. “Karu, I will make the modifications to Sneaky Fucker, you find the transmitting frequency and a weakness in their firewall.”

“On it,” he said, pulling up his own datapad and syncing it into the courier’s systems. Behind them, on the forward screen, Harry Mudd’s face appeared, gigantic and sneering. Hikaru guessed that they had less than two minutes to strike while T’Rokh and Pakal stalled. “I’m in,” Hikaru said softly.

Pavel leaned across his body to look at his datapad. “Send it to my screen.”

Hikaru complied with a couple of taps to his datapad and Hikaru sent the virus to Mudd’s ship, mumbling what might have been a Russian prayer.

Mudd’s voice poured over them, crowing in triumph. Just keep grandstanding, Hikaru thought. Give the virus time to do its work.

Mudd’s face flickered, then disappeared from the screen. His ship decloaked and went dark. Not even the running lights stayed on. Pakal reported, “Enemy vessel is disabled. All power systems offline. USS Sugihara reports an ETA of eighteen minutes.”

“Sulu, Chekov, how long can we expect that ship to be out of commission?”

Chekov grinned wickedly. “Sneaky Fucker causes all wiring in power allocation relays to short and fuse. Will take many hours to fix if the ship has spare parts to complete repairs.”

T’Rokh nodded. “A clever solution.” She ducked into the access hatch to check out the damaged nacelle.

Sugihara arrived some minutes later with an engineering crew and spare parts, and the courier was on its way to New Vulcan within two hours. 

*

The first thing Pavel noticed on beaming down to New Vulcan was how new everything was. The Vulcans seemed fragile and out of place moving among hastily erected prefabricated buildings and streets laid out in the perfect grids that bespoke advance planning rather than organic growth.

Hikaru stayed by Pavel’s side through as much of the ceremony as allowed. He had imagined something ancient and intimidating, heavy with the weight of thousands of years of tradition, but there were few surviving healers and priests and little time for pomp and circumstance. The transfer took place in the settlement hospital where the few surviving katric arks waited for their permanent home to be built.

Varen introduced him to Telik’s widow and infant daughter. _May I hold her once more?_ Telik asked.

“He would like to hold her,” Pavel told the woman. She bowed her head solemnly and lay the baby in his arms. Hikaru saw them together and a smile brightened his face, so Pavel had to take a little hand and wave at him. Too soon for Telik, it was time to give the little one back to her mother.

Varen had Pavel sit on a biobed, then drew Telik out of his mind and into a utilitarian looking box that he placed on a shelf next to a row of similar boxes before opening up a file on a data screen. Chekov stood up to look over Varen’s shoulder, but the writing was in Vulcan.

Varen explained, “The vaults on Vulcan contained billions of katras. They had their own space, their minds imprinted into the very stones of the Halls of Ancient Thought. A mere forty katras were rescued from the planet as it fell, and another eighty-nine have been collected since then, not enough for natural processes to preserve their wisdom or even their sanity. We have had to make adjustments.”

“Those remaining have full access to the planetary nets, where they are free to interact with the living,” Telik’s widow told him. “I find the change not unwelcome under the circumstances.”

“Indeed,” Varen agreed. “I have been informed that the Enterprise will arrive in three days to retrieve you. Until then, you have been assigned quarters here. There are so few of us remaining, every loss is felt more deeply by our people, and every return of one of our own deeply appreciated.”

Pavel ducked his head, embarrassed. Karu wrapped an arm around him and squeezed.

“To carry a katra under such circumstances is an act of heroism. Know that it will not be forgotten,” Varen continued. “Lieutenant Sulu, would you take Ensign Chekov to you quarters? I am certain he would appreciate some time to recover.”

Pavel and Karu made their way out of the hospital into the warmth of the New Vulcan afternoon. Once they were out of earshot of the Vulcans, Karu said, “Sorry about your birthday.”

“Next year will be better,” Pavel assured him. “How far are our quarters? I am not so tired, and we are finally alone.”

Karu’s hand slid down until his thumb caught on his waistband. “Not far.”

Pavel looked around, decided there were not too many witnesses, and besides, as a hero, he was entitled to a little scandalous behavior. He stopped in the middle of the street, tipped Karu’s chin up, and planted a solid kiss on his sun-warmed lips. Karu wrapped his arms tighter around him and returned it with interest. 

Karu pulled him along as though they were teenagers until they reached their bungalow. “It’s all ours for three days. What would you like to do first?”

“You, of course,” Pavel told him and dragged him inside.


End file.
